Shaping is a whole new world. If you have the experience already... it's probably no big deal. I've been studying and studying and have yet to turn out a usable piece... this for over 4 years now. Watch lots of "Lazze" videos and Ron Fournier and Wray Schellin videos on youtube and do what you can. Like any seriously good work, there is a cost to tools and materials. I suggest looking up homemade Metal shaping tools as well. Making your own shaping hammer is doable using a protector top off a welding tank (oxy or acet.), and a thick wall piece of tubing if you have a way to weld them together. Shot bag not as necessary as you may think, as long as you have some sort of solid table to work with. You can make a shrinking Stump out of a stump as well... fairly cheap if you can find a good stump.

Give it hell. Cheap English wheels may or may not still be available at Harbor Freight. You may be able to find someone near you that has one... I have one, but I'm not nearby.

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"There's not much room for anything else..."
- David Ponsler

I checked HF and they don't have anything. My issue is that I've heard of people with shot bags having them blow apart and have shot all over the place. Just looking for quality. Don't really have a strong enough table to pound stuff on.
Jeff

If you can't find a good chunk of wood to dish out see if you can find some 12 inch sections of 4 by 4's and glue them together and run some bolts thru them, once dry start dishing it out
I started one back after I built my forge, my son had friends over one night and mistakenly thru it into the fire pit, it was made up of 9 pieces by 12 inches long, I used a circular saw to dish it out until I couldn't go any deeper, would have turned out nice if I wouldn't have left it outside
I use the bottom of an 8 inch diameter CO2 tank now, it does the job

Ron

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"Can't" is a word that means your to lazy to even try.

What Ron said... I've seen some folks do the Tank bottoms as well... Sand is cheaper... but don't use it... It's not about the mess. It's about Silicosis... Look it up on the wweb and how you get and and how you can't get rid of it... You'll understand quickly...

If you're anywhere near Roselle in Illinois, Go To JonDon.com and find the store address and go pick up some steel shot... It's not that expensive and usually they'll have broken bags they'll let go pretty cheap as well... it's heavy for it's size...

Shot bags that are worth a damn... Buy from Wray Shellin... Proshaper.com. Nice bags, need to fill them though... he explains how to do it... and if you want you can do even better than he does... He has a few different sizes.

I've heard good and bad about shot bags though. some people say it's more work because you have to move the shot with each strike of the hammer... if you use a Donut (or tank bottom or stump or whatever else works...) it's only moving the metal and is less physically demanding. There's a guy selling a delrin piece he calls a tuck puck as well... light weight portable and does the same thing as a stump or donut...Basically a plastic stump... LOL

I like Ron's Lay up Log as well... glue up some 2x12's and dish 'em out... it works and can be customized to your liking as well...

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"There's not much room for anything else..."
- David Ponsler

Hope that helps out though... hey... call ahead and see what they have at the time. There are different grades and sizes of shot as well. Don't get steel GRIT if they have it... get their SHOT... pay close attention. I work on the machines that use it to prep concrete for filler and leveling. We have one customer that prefers the Grit, so they keep a pallet of the stuff for that customer... Don't know about Roselle's customer base.

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"There's not much room for anything else..."
- David Ponsler

Is the grit rough, you know like crushed stone verses pea gravel, the pea gravel is round and doesn't pack together when pounded, crushed gravel locks together when pounder on, just something to think about when making your decision on what to fill your bag with

Ron

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"Can't" is a word that means your to lazy to even try.

The grit is like tiny Balls of steel... very tiny. They do not pack like lead shot does (which is actually what a lot of folks use... but I don't like the lead stuff, due to the pounding and possibly air borne situation of a hole comes on...) I have about 100 lbs of it in my garage waiting for me to buy a bag for it too...

Most of these guys recommend going to the Reloader store or buying Weight Lead shot (used for many things in manufacturing to hold tings down that are oddly shaped... and make things fit odd contours and stuff).

Dagger tools make some really nice hammers and dolly's. I have several of their hammers and I love them. Beautiful pieces. I have one of their Shot bags as well but to be honest I haven't used it enough to really stress it. It's still really supple though after 10 years. Now that I think about it, I guess I have used it longer than I thought. And I would use shot. I filled both of my bags YEARS ago and haven't lost any. Sand tends to creep out and stick to the piece you're working on which is a real pain. Especially if you're doing E wheel work where it can ruin the anvils

something to think about. steel shot. some states don't allow lead shot anymore. go to a gun store and order what ever pound you may need for reloading shot gun shells. there is a reason it's called a shot bag.